


Shiny Hair

by Arsenic



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-09-11
Updated: 2006-09-11
Packaged: 2020-11-07 14:47:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 431
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20819069
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arsenic/pseuds/Arsenic
Summary: Challenge: ugly duckling, includes Hermione.





	Shiny Hair

**Author's Note:**

> Written for hpshortfics.

Hermione figured out very early on that being smart didn't mean knowing everything. Hogwarts students called her a know-it-all--behind her back and to her face--and Hermione felt perfectly justified in living up to the title, as it was better than some of the things the kids from home had called her.

At least at Hogwarts being a know-it-all meant you might live longer.

Though she probably should have been, she wasn't surprised when Ron didn't recognize her at the Yule Ball. She'd wanted him to, of course. What fourteen year old girl didn't want a boy a foot taller than her with good potential and a smile that always wiped away her homesickness to see that shiny hair wasn't the only thing that mattered in a relationship?

(Or perfect teeth. The kind only wizards had. Hermione's parents just couldn't understand the appeal of perfection. Most days she understood, after all, they'd raised her, but occasionally. . . She almost hadn't noticed how far she'd let Madam Pomfrey go. Almost.)

She wanted him to say something like, "Wow, you're beautiful," even though this was Ron and it would have been stuttered and he'd have looked at his toes, but it would have meant, "you're beautiful, _you_ are," not, "oh, hey, you look good in a dress."

To her surprise, she wasn't surprised ten years later when somebody did tell her, "You're beautiful."

He didn't look at his shoes as he said it, which was nice, as she wasn't fourteen anymore, and was not entirely certain he ever had been. Her hair was a mess, she'd pushed it back countless times in distraction. The problem she was working at wouldn't conform to any known arithmantical boundaries, and Hermione would have preferred not to create new ones. She hadn't been sleeping enough as it was. She was sure there were circles around her eyes.

He did stutter a bit, but that might have been because he yawned in the middle of the casual declaration. He didn't apologize or excuse himself. Even were he the type, they were a little beyond that.

She laughed when it happened, even though she'd waited so long for someone to say it, someone to notice. She said, "You're tired."

He repeated, "You're beautiful."

So she shoved the compliment away like she always did the things she most wanted, as afraid of them as she was of the things she least wanted. "Since when?"

"Since I looked long enough to see you."

And she should have been surprised, but Severus Snape had always seen more than he was supposed to.


End file.
